Provided they're watched and the critters aren't allowed to chew 'em up completely, we've gotten huge amounts of mileage out of Q-TIPS.... most of the younger generation will carry them around and bat them and throw them around like crazy for a good hour in the morning- just have to get the cardboard shaft ones (not plastics) and try and make sure they don't keep them too long and mangle them- but they love them- kind of little, soft, short batons, I guess- they do fly interestingly when thrown, kind of like Aussie boomerangs, and they're fun to carry all over--